In the five years since NewsCenter 5 reporter Kelley Tuthill was diagnosed with breast cancer, oncologists say the medical and research communities have made steady progress in improving treatments, but some activists are losing patience that a cure has not been found.

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Dr. Ann Partridge of Bostons Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said, "lots of groundbreaking stuff [is] going on with regard to figuring out that one size does not fit all."

Tuthill reported Tuesday that the drug Herceptin has been proven very successful in treating the specific type of breast cancer that will impact a quarter of all women diagnosed. Ongoing research is now trying to determine if pairing Herceptin with a second medication might make it into an even more powerful cancer fighter.

Every year in the United States, a quarter million women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. An estimated 40,000 die from the disease each year.

Researchers are focusing on ways to ensure that treatment is successful the first time, so that breast cancer does not return or metastasize.

"We see women in years number four, five or six are still hearing from their breast cancer again," Partridge said. "How can we prevent those late recurrences? We've learned certain hormonal manipulations. Adding on another drug after a woman completes tamoxifen, for example, dramatically over time reduces her risk from hearing from that kind of breast cancer again."

But activists, including the National Breast Cancer Coalition, are growing increasingly impatient with the lack of a major breakthrough that could dramatically cut the number of cases.

"In terms of ending breast cancer, reducing the number of deaths from breast cancer, we're not making any significant process there," according to Carol Matyka, a spokesperson for the NBCC.

The organization recently announced a plan to end the disease by 2020. Its website shows a countdown clock as a reminder of its commitment to focus resources and efforts on finding out what causes breast cancer to form and what causes it to metastasize.

Matyka called that "the $60 million question. Can we stop breast cancer from forming in the first place? There's certainly a lot of hope and reasons to look forward to a vaccine."

Another challenge remains addressing the needs of the nations three million breast cancer survivors. Partridge has recently been named director of Dana-Farbers new survivorship program.

"Cancer's not one disease, and then breast cancer is not one disease," she said. "So we're really digging in trying to create a tailored approach. Now we need to create a tailored approach to survivorship because patients are unique. The treatments they received and how their bodies react to those treatment as well as their cancer's react are also unique."